What is a bijouterie cabinet?

A shallow glazed cabinet or table made to display small jewellery and trinkets. The word turns up in 22 of the titles on Sellingantiques, commonly attached to a table form on legs. It overlaps with vitrine, which appears in 13 titles. Dealers use the two words for much the same thing, and one title strings six such terms together at once.

Which wood is most common?

Mahogany, by a distance: it appears in 38 of 127 titles, with walnut in 8 and satinwood and rosewood behind that. There is also a metal-framed strand in brass, bronze and chrome, small in number and clustered in the 1920s to 1950s.

How old are these cabinets?

The dealers' own dating runs from 1790 to 1960, with 70 of the listings carrying a clean year. That is a 170-year span for what is nominally one form. The 1920s is the single largest bracket at 27 listings, ahead of Victorian at 22. Edwardian, 1900s and 1910s together make the turn of the century substantial. Much of the dating is broad rather than precise. Thirteen listings say only "19th Century" and four only "Georgian".

Are shop counters part of this category?

Yes, and they are a fifth or so of it. "Shop" appears in 23 titles and "counter" in 18, covering Victorian jewellery shop counters through to 1930s shop display counter cabinets. They sit at the upper end of the range, particularly where several are sold together.

What do the drawer counts mean?

On collectors' cabinets the number of drawers is quoted as a selling point. The listings run from seven and eight drawers up to a single 31-drawer mahogany cabinet. These banks of shallow drawers are offered for coins and medals as often as for jewellery.

Do many of these come up for sale?

Around nine a year reach the market, and 57 different dealers have listed one. So the category is spread thinly across a lot of stock rather than being any one dealer's speciality.

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Antique Jewellery Cabinets

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A glazed, drawered cabinet made to keep and show jewellery, from small table-top cases and bijouterie tables up to the counters and fittings of a jeweller's shop.